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Olcott. Sun Lore of All Ages

Today's free book is Sun Lore of All Ages: A Collection of Myths and Legends Concerning the Sun and Its Worship by William Tyler Olcott. For the table of contents, check at the bottom of this post below the image.

The links below are to the Sacred Texts online edition, with this prefatory comment from John Bruno Hare: "This is a review of the literature of Sun lore. While for the most part factually correct, this is not an academic study. Olcott is light on the citations, and it apparent that he didn't use primary sources for the vast majority of the myths. But by far the biggest problem here is the reliance on the 19th century 'solar mythology' theorists, in which every myth and scrap of folklore was interpreted as some symbolic aspect of the sun, the solar year, the water cycle, and any other conceivable sun-related phenomenon. That said, this is one of those books that makes fascinating reading, whether you read it end-to-end or are just browsing."